THE IOWA STRAW POLL MYSTERY

E.Nordstrom of FederalJack) The official number of votes counted in the 2011 Iowa Straw Poll is 16,892. The general breakdown of the total is as follows:
4823 – Michelle Bachmann
4671 – Ron Paul
2293 – Pawlenty
1657 – Santorum
1456 – Cain
718 – Perry
567 – Romney
385 – Gingrich
69 – Huntsman
35 – McCotter
Ok, so let’s add up the votes (4823 + 4671 + 2293 + 1657 + 1456 + 718 + 567 + 385 + 69 +35 = 16,674). But wait a minute, the total votes counted were 16,892 right? So, of the total votes counted in the Iowa Straw Poll amounting to 16,892. The ten candidates listed above garnered 16,674. Well that leaves 218 votes unaccounted for.
So where did the remaining 218 votes go?
MSNBC has reported that the 218 is actually only 162 votes that are a “scattering” of ballots for candidates receiving less than one percent of the votes. Ok, fine, so who are these candidates? In addition, if as MSNBC is reporting it is only 162 and not 218, then where did the other 56 votes go? Hey! Let’s confuse the public even more!
Source: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/13/7366544-bachmann-wins-ames-straw-poll
Let’s move on shall we?